Tips, strategies, thoughts and discussion for increasing your Metalstorm Online Skills.
Check Back Often - This is a work in progress

Monday, January 21, 2013

FA-12 Liberty - Welcome Back!

FA-12 Liberty: Weapons Class

Real name: F-16 Thunderbirds

Happy to see the FA-12 Liberty returning. This is one of my favorites in the weapons class.

Who wouldn’t want to be a pilot in a famous Thunderbird fighter? Maybe one of the most famous fighter jets in
the world, this plane with its awesome eagle artwork on its underbelly is one of
the coolest and most striking planes in the fleet. Performing in air shows around the world, more people have probably seen the Thunderbirds perform than any other planes (with possibly the exception of the Navys F-18 Blue Angels - Heh Z2Live - when are you going to come out with a Blue Angel equivalent??).

The Liberty is a formidable weapons class plane

The FA-12 Liberty, in my opinion, is a great choice for a
weapons class plane. If you look at the PLANE COMPARISON TABLE,
you can see that this plane BEST IN FLEET for missile locking speed and also BEST IN FLEET for missile
tracking of all planes out there! It can’t fire missiles quite as fast as a
Hawken or Hurricane, but the missiles it does shoot are more likely to hit the
mark. The Liberty is also one of the faster of the weapons class
planes (although don’t get too excited about that, any upgraded agility class
planes will still smoke it with regards to speed).

Z2Live held a competition awhile back on its MetalStorm Facebook page for best shots of a Libertys "flipping the bird" in combat - the winning photo is shown 3rd above in the header of this site.

The Liberty is a special edition plane, so if you want it - grab it quick.

63 comments:

Liberty is superior to Hurricane... Hurricane and Tigris are almost same But Not in the class of Sentinel, Liberty and eagle..To cause and equal damage as those three, Hurrican spends about double the Missiles . It does have a Superior Manuever ability but Not as much.. overall all Liberty is second bets to Best in class Sentinel..

all have weakness in Cannon resistance... hence better Agility planes can Kill Weapon class Just by resorting to superior Cannoning... even wartusk for that matter can kill both Hurricane or Liberty.

hi , you really must look at Sentinel Vs Liberty to reconsider your buying decision. While Liberty does Offer Best in class missile Tracking and Lock speed and superior Manueverability... Sentinel More then makes up for Both of these By its bets in Class Damage Properties of Missile Lock Range and cannon damage. If you are warring within Weapons class ; make it a point to lock your enemy early and do bull runs to avoid being in range... Do alot of canning as well... Good Luck Champ!

hi , you really must look at Sentinel Vs Liberty to reconsider your buying decision. While Liberty does Offer Best in class missile Tracking and Lock speed and superior Manueverability... Sentinel More then makes up for Both of these By its bets in Class Damage Properties of Missile Lock Range and cannon damage. If you are warring within Weapons class ; make it a point to lock your enemy early and do bull runs to avoid being in range... Do alot of canning as well... Good Luck Champ!

I just got one of these with a really cool trick found on the dragon blog. It is an amazing plane. Perfect mix between a weapons/agility plane. Fast as all hell but not crazy to control. The big difference is the POP it can bring. Honestly I got really bored in my hawken and I just couldn't control the reaper...but this plane is simply PERFECT! If you get a chance, you gotta get one of these bad boys.

This question may be out of scope right now, though I have to ask - If you guys had a choice between a "Red Widow " and a " Liberty " , which one would you prefer ? Or if any of you have both planes - could I know which one performs better in versus matches ? Thanks...I just got the liberty today ( and im very impressed with her ! ) though I was actually hoping Z2 released Red Widow :)

FA-12 Liberty re-released! I repeat, FA-12 Liberty re-released! Same stats! Same design! Same purchase cost! (It's kind of annoying when this occurs; same planes from the past brought up, not too many new designs now)

watch your mouth my friend! take a look at the link about I made above. seriously, for campaign mode, why buy these expensive aircraft? my eagle-x does fine in campaign mode anyway.Besides,if you think about it, the missile tracking is useless in campaign mode. In versus mode, the only way a weapons class aircraft will win agility class opponents with more than 500 skill is if they have a hawken, or hurricane with bisnovats. If you get a Mako, and upgrade it, it can dodge most bisnovats. I only have trouble dodging bisnovats, when there are dozens lauched at me quickly. However, that is where the agility class aircraft's armor regeneration and agility comes in.In survival mode, weapons class aircraft lack any armor regeneration, and they can reach no more than wave 20 if they are lucky. Buy a M-11 Raven my friend. Or buy a thresher.

p.s.- bird armor for the liberty is quiet hard to find. actually, i don't think there is such thing as bird armor...

My friend, you have yet to discover new tactics for weapons class in versus. I sometimes verse other players with higher skill rating than me who are using a weapons, they can still get a kill. Your limited mind doesn't know that, by making close contact with an opponent, you can shoot missiles and still cause great damage to agility before you lock on. Also timing your missiles at a far away distance can manage to hit agility class if they're not careful.

The key word is "if they're not careful". An careful agility class pilot, who can control the planes agility and speed is pretty much impossible to defeat. In a long range engagement, I can take my time doing maneuver, after maneuver, slowly firing and reloading missiles-accumulating damage. Once in a close range engagement, the best a weapons class aircraft pilot can do is do backflip after backflip, hoping I will not get too many shots at it. The only time I have been defeated is by opponents with bisnovats, or lancers, so I don't find it extremely threatening seeing a place, that has a paint theme of a bird, and +10 damage.

By the way, Stan the Man, what do you mean by tactics? 1000 backflips? It is just that I have not ever seen a threatening weapons class opponent with raam missiles. Maybe you can post a youtube link of what you call a weapons class ace, because I just have not seen one. My image of a threatening weapons class aircraft is a hurricane with bisnovats. I wouldn't call fast missile reloading, nor missile tracking a skill or a tactic. Meanwhile, for many, controlling an agility class aircraft itself is a feat, not to mension surviving in one.

As for the thing about timing missiles...

A fully upgraded agility class aircraft going at full speed, with its nose pointing downwards decending is all it takes to miss raam missiles. I suppose if you have bisnovats though, timing missiles may help. I have to admit, I do sometimes have a hard time dodging bisnovats. Sometimes, I dodge the first missile, but not the second of the pair. So there we go, if you are an expert at wasting money, then buy yourself bisnovats, and a fa-12 Liberty-now that is a "tactic" isn't it...

I'm weapons class pilot (40k+) and I agree with Stan. I rarely do backflips and I can beat agility class (50k+) with RAAMs with Stan's mentioned tactics. However it's not an easy win because it's based on your instinct on when to maneuver and shoot missiles xD. Most dumb weapons plane pilots probably chase after the red arrow, but that's not what I do =P. I realized the hard way when I was lower SR, that I should change my pace to throw off the agility plane pilot's attack pattern. And thanks to that, they rarely hit me now too. I usually win or draw these days against agility planes =).

On topic with the featured plane...I regret purchasing liberty.My tactics are as mentioned above, so lock speed was not necessary.It rather distracts me, because I tend to shoot if I lock on even if the enemy's like right off the corner lol.It just doesn't have enough agility and missile reload speed either (duh) which I realize now that it's crucial for me.Speed is great for dodging first wave of missles, but it feels like I run out of energy faster,I do like the design, but I don't think I'll be using this plane in versus ever again.That leaves me with hawken or redwidow for me =P.

I watched the vid and saw that "SOS" didn't do a backflip, but in fact a barrelroll whilst shooting. The opponent got a shot or two because "OnsenTamango" was probably vulnerable at that time and got hit. You do realise that players of such high skill ratings have secrets to fight? All will be revealed one day...

I haven't done much intentional backflips at all.... Perhaps just a few from the beginning I started playing this game, but I soon find that backflips locks your plane and must complete the maneuver before you can tilt to control again, which is very very risky and useless in a match.... So now I only use barrelrolls.... Sometimes I may backflip because my finger accidentally swipe downward instead of right/leftward.... But I assure you.... I didn't backflip in that match....

Stan the man, talking about planes and tactics, I want to know if a u-9 raider is actually capable of dodging bisnovates missiles. I have just set up a new game center Id and I only have the c-101 and the raider. Should I tune up my skill with the raider, or buy a thresher? I use to have 9000+ in skill and a j-35 dynasty, but now, I do not know if it is possible to survive in a raider against higher skill level opponents with bisnovats. I have previously seen many c-101 aces, so is it possible to dodge bisnovates in a u-9???

It is possible to dodge bisnovats in any fully upgraded agility plane from long and short distance. I find long easier. How? Quickly face your stupid noob opponent, accelerate full speed, turn a slightly left angle. Make sure you lock on your opponent in this time. When your opponent fires the bisnovats, quickly turn your plane right and at the same time, do a roll. When you're rolling, shoot your missiles if they have locked on already. This process attempts to make the missile harder to hit at you. Just remember:Higher or lower altitudeHard direction change with a hard barrel roll.Full speed.

You get the FA-12 Liberty mainly for its beautiful Thunderbird paint scheme. The plus 8% missile tracking is marginal compared to the +50% missile tracking you get with AIM-120 RAAM or the +100% you get with Bisnos and Lancers. Hence, a RAAM fitted F-51 Hawken seems to be the more balanced weapons class fighter. Especially in versus-mode the +10% agility and +10% missile of the Haken make the crucial difference to compete against top agility class. Not to mention the better value for money of the Hawken, since you can buy it with 20k credits and can save your coins for the tech upgrade.

Side note: The FA-12 Liberty features the Thunderbirds paint scheme, but is missing the F-16 air intake. Thus, like the D-21 Falcon it seems not to be a jet fighter but some kind of rocked propelled aircraft, like the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163 ). So, while only Z2 can explain the missing air intakes, if you want to fly an F-16 airframe, you have to stick with the F-12 Talon.

It's possible to be any classed ace. It's all about practice. To be aces, here are recommended planes for each classAGILITY: Reaper for rich, Annihilator for poorDEFENCE: Juggernaut and RavenWEAPONS: Hawken and Wraith( Note: The two planes in the class are for the rich and poor eg. Reaper costs more than annihilator

I don't think a SR-71 Blackbird is going to be the nightwing. Although it's black, the Blackbird is fast and should either be in agility or weapons class. Not defence. Till we find out... May the 4th be with you!

a random side comment, has anyone else noticed that the actual moving parts of the plane when in flight arn't shown in the reflection in the hangar? missles are also invisable (that one was slightly more obvious... i think)

Back to topic.. I think liberty is one of the best weapons plane out there. due to its stats. It has the SpeeD to evade bisnovs, be it close or far. N of course u have to know how to manuever to evade the missles. During circling match, it can lock on faster and more accurate missle shots. Plus its a WEAPONS Plane and it will inflict serious Damage (+10). With great skills n the Liberty, Its one hell of a weapons plane . (Noob flyer)

The other day I was beaten 3-1 by a certain Warwolf Danzibob in a versus match flying my Paladin. The Liberty is extremely good for shooting and running. All the time, Danzibob fired 2 RAAMs at me, dived low, dodged my missiles, and let two more missiles go. If the Liberty comes back, I'll use my Paladin's super lock speed to target this plane and get it myself.

Does anyone have any advice for using the liberty? From my experiences, i consider the liberty a difficult plane to beat, but i can't seem to get as much kills with it as other players who use it. I normally the hawken as my primary weapon plane and the liberty doesn't have enough agility.

This is the absolute best weapons class plane in the game, bar none! i just got it and wow, there's not enough words to describe how good this plane really is. +12 speed, great for dodging coins or whatever, +10 damage, will kill you fast as +14-17 heavy hitters, +10 lock speed, once they're locked they're got. And +8 missile tracking? Oh baby- once you have them locked- squeeze the trigger and probably 98% of the time, you are going to hit your enemy with force and accurate precision!! Players will be pissed when they see this "dirty bird" connecting!!